Another first for the Force family

YORBA LINDAHe has been upside down and on fire more times that he can count during his record-setting NHRA Funny Car career, surviving the kind of crashes that can make anyone believe in miracles.
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So it's understandable why John Force seemed rather emotional here on Tuesday, almost on the verge of tears at times.

After he took his place at the podium during a news conference at his spacious race shop, he told the packed house his daughter, Ashley, 24, was about to make an announcement, the thought of which terrified him.

He remembers breaking out in a cold sweat as he watched Ashley stumble and fall during her high-flying acrobatic routines when she was a cheerleader at Esperanza High, and now she's getting ready to compete in a 330 mph sport in which you don't often get a second chance.

Beginning with the season-opening Winternationals in Pomona on Feb. 8-11, Ashley Force will drive an 8,000-plus horsepower Ford Mustang Funny Car prepared by her father's championship-winning, Yorba Linda-based team.

She will become the first female to race in this highly volatile, nitro-burning class since Cristen Powell failed to qualify for the NHRA Finals in Pomona in 2000.
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Before they headed out into the shop on Tuesday to face the TV cameras, John Force turned to his daughter, and gave her one last chance to back out.

"I told her once we go through the door there's no turning back," Force said. "I have never been a Little League father that pushes the deal, but my wife (Laurie) says that I have. I told her that I haven't. I have just given her some opportunities, so maybe I did push it. But it was her (Ashley's) call."

Force said he did his best to bring his daughter into the class as slowly as possible, putting her through almost a year of supervised testing in his car. Last April, she became the 10th woman in NHRA history to earn a Funny Car license when she clocked in at 4.936 seconds and 315.86 mph at The Strip at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.

She returned to the track for another test in October and she covered the quarter-mile in 4.809 seconds, which would have been good enough to qualify for the AC Delco Nationals held last fall in Las Vegas.

Her father, a 14-time Funny Car champion, has never has lost to a woman.
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"But that is about to change," Ashley said.

During the next two weeks, Ashley will do some more testing in her Dean Antonelli-tuned car at Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Firebird International Raceway in Chandler, Ariz.

"Hopefully, we will be able to line up against John in the final at Pomona in a few weeks," said Antonelli, who as a crew member helped John win 10 Funny Car championships. "She done well in testing and comes into this with quite a bit of experience."

In 2004, Ashley began driving an Alcohol dragster, owned by Jerry Darien and Ken Meadows, and she sped to the top of her class that year at the sport's most prestigious race, the U.S. Nationals.

A couple of months later in Pomona, she shared victory lane with her father, becoming the only father-daughter duo in NHRA history to win their respective classes at the same event.

The Cal State Fullerton graduate spent three seasons driving an Alcohol dragster, winning five of her nine final round appearances and placing as high as fourth in the national driver standings.

"The countdown has finally begun," she said. "I can't tell you how pumped I am for this."